Thanks to Halloween I've changed my NFL game day snack

Now I haven't been writing about food on this site as much I did back in 2009, so apologies for that. Here in the U.K people don't tailgate at games and I'm watching the NFL on T.V late at night. But as it was Halloween coming up, I was thrilled to see nice big pumpkins (my favourite of the root vegetables) at my supermarket.

Knowing that Halloween is such a big oocassion in the U.S Steph and I knew we had to make our first Jack-o-Lantern, but we didn't have a clue how to do it. Thankfully Steph's sister and her fella popped round and showed how to carve it and gut it. So for Halloween night we made a lovely pumpkin risotto.

Three great vids of the Bucs and Bears in London

These three videos from nfl.com  are great. The  first video is of the Chicago Bears sound effects from the game. Notice how Matt Forte and Chris Harris do some pretty nifty British accents. Click here.

The second video is mainly of osh Freeman and the build up to the 5th International series game, here in London. Click here for that video.

The third also features the Bucs and is about their travles over in London. Click here for that one.

Enjoy and Go Bears

Found myself on nfl.com AND Chicago Sun Times

After getting home from Wembley, I was zonked out and could only watch the first half of the Saints destroy the Colts. The next morning, I was rooting through the internet when I found two pictures of me; one at NFL.com and the other in the Chicago Sun Times.




This first one (above)  was from the Chicago Sun Times. (You will have to scroll to the 13th pic on the link).

I was pretty chuffed to see that my hand crafted Staley Bears hat was making the news.

While this second one, although not nearly as good was found on nfl.com.

Shame that this photographer took a stronger liking to the Redskin jersey wearing Bucs hat, but oh well.

Bears 24-Bucs 18. Wembley Stadium: London

The pre match ceremony, as always was spectacular. Our seats were right down the front behind the endzone amongst a mix group of Bear, Bucs and neutral fans. Huge Bears and Bucs flags were brought onto the field which then found themselves being draped across the fans. This got us up on our feet nice and early.

Sadly there were several large gaps in the upper tier where the game had not sold, the first non sell out during the International Series. Though the near 77,000 crowd is still a lot of people. Many pundits blamed the lockout because of the non sell out, because tickets went on sale far later than usual.

Wembley Tailgate 2011

The Wembley Tailgate party was due for kickoff at midday, and end at 5pm, giving fans an hour to find their seats for the pre-show ceremonies. I was told by the BearDown crew the night before, that they were playing against the Buc fans in a game of touch football on the astro turf by Wembley at 11:30am.

NFL Fan Rally 2011

This was the second year that the NFL had what they called a “Fan Rally” and it was held at Trafalgar Square in central London. The set up was much like a massive NFL fan zone. Large inflatable games on the north side, merchandise and food on the outer rings a large piazza space to watch the action on the large stage just under Nelson’s column.